1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a throttle position detecting apparatus for detecting a throttle position by detecting a rotation angle of a throttle grip of a vehicle having handlebars such as a motorcycle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a vehicle having handlebars such as a motorcycle is equipped with a throttle grip at the tip of a handlebar and is also equipped with a throttle position detecting apparatus for allowing the vehicle to run at an arbitrary speed by detecting a throttle position on the basis of an angle of rotation, effected by the driver, of the throttle grip. Throttle position detecting apparatus having various configurations have been proposed conventionally, an example of which is one disclosed in JP-A-4-254278.
The throttle position detecting apparatus disclosed in this document is mainly composed of a drive pulley that rotates in conjunction with a throttle grip, a detection gear that is in mesh with a gear that is part of the drive pulley, and a throttle position sensor that is a potentiometer and detects a rotation angle of the detection gear. When the throttle grip is rotated, the indication value of the potentiometer is varied via the drive pulley and a throttle position is thereby detected.
However, in the above conventional throttle position detecting apparatus, the drive pulley, the detection gear, and the throttle position sensor are separate bodies and are provided in cases individually. This may cause a large assembling error. Such an assembling error causes play between the drive pulley and the detection gear, which makes it difficult to detect a correct throttle position and results in a problem that the reliability of the device is lowered.